How to: iPad Dead or is it?

I knew it was going to happen one day. It was a good thing it happen while in my hands. I was surfing the Internet when all of sudden, a blank screen. The iPad was DOA. Now what?

I tried the power button, the home button. I tried to charge it. The works. Nothing ….

Was it truly the end of my son’s first iPad. “Well it had a good run”, I told my wife. She was less then enthused that this expensive device was gone and that we would have to get another. “Get another!” Yes there was no way I was going to be telling my son that the iPad is gone (night, night would have been the term I would have used). I was already planning how I would replace it without him knowing…. Could I get away with it?

Going to the Apple Store

My wife and I decided that we would go to the Apple store together to see what they can do and if we had to buy one we would be in the right place. We walk up to the 2 guys standing there at the door controlling traffic and I said “I broke my son’s iPad, Is there some magic button you can push and fix it”. Turns out there IS! 10 seconds later the iPad was rebooting. Apple logo and all.

The Magic Button

Turns out that the magic button is really a combination of buttons, but in the end it is the same. I asked them to explain what they did. They preformed a Hard Reset. It is very simple, when all else fails and the iPad does not respond do this:

Hold the Power Button (Button 1 below) and the Home Button (Button 3 below) down together for 10 seconds or until the apple logoappears. That is it.

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Notes: A Hard Reset does not erase your applications. This is good as you don’t need to reinstall software, however sync with iTunes early and often in case something really goes wrong and you do loose your iPad.